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Federico De Leonardis
'''Federico "Lucky Leo" De Leonardis '''was a Chicago Outfit associate and a compulsive gambler who was known to have run the Gambling crime ring for the Chicago Gang. De Leonardis was nicknamed "Lucky Leo" due to his oft-repeated successes in poker games, and was accused of cheating on more than one occasion. Lucky Leo attempted to move his gambling ring to New York City but died before he could do so. Biography De Leonardis was born in Chicago, Illinois, on Monahan Street, which was a generally-poor neighborhood. Federico's father Ruggiano worked as an oil driller, his mother Providenza working as a spinster. Federico was raised in the neighborhood and became involved in under-age gambling with older people, and was nicknamed "Lucky Leo" for winning several games against them. When he defeated a shark, the shark wanted him dead, so De Leonardis was home-schooled, until he was met by Al Capone, who offered to "remove" the threat. In return, De Leonardis offered to give them a cut of his shares, and he became a loan shark under the wing of Julius Ferrara, starting in 1907. "Big Jule" tought him all he needed to know about gambling, and how to cheat at poker, and De Leonardis made a living off of hustling people's money. De Leonardis gained membership in the Aurelian Club by 1916, a poker-player social club that was operated by Big Buff Mazzini, a Capo of the Genna crime family, and in 1923, was told by his bosses to wipe him out so that he could become the leader. Mazzini's fall led to De Leonardis being the center of the Chicago gambling scene, and gained notoriety as a famous hustler and gangster. De Leonardis was arrested on March 8, 1925, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in connection with the Mazzini murder, and was extradited back to the United States. He won a gambling game with the judge, gambling his life, and he was let off by the plaintiff after giving him his earnings in the match. His bribe was accepted happily, but that stain remained on his reputation, now becoming known as a killer as well. Fred returned to Chicago in 1926 after briefly living in Las Vegas, and expanded the Aurelian Club to Vegas and Los Angeles as well, securing an agreement with the Iron Man Gang of Los Angeles and Smaldone crime family of Denver, Colorado, to arrange the creation of casinos on their turf, where they would get a share of the profits. Fred De Leonardis was lauded by The Commission, who were happy to promote the Aurelian Club in their members' territories, and by 1930, his casinos had been placed in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Jose, St. Louis, New Orleans, Portland, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Atlanta, Washington, DC, Boston, Providence, Des Moines, San Francisco, and Dallas. The only holdout was New York, whose overlord Vito Corleone refused to allow rival families' interests in his lands. De Leonardis attempted to get Gambetti approval, but failed to do so, as the Gambettis were obliged to promote their own Nathan Detroit's casinos and gambling rings. Fred gained The Commission's approval to move operations into Brooklyn in 1931, moving his base of operations into Brooklyn Heights, where he won lots of money, as it was a rich neighborhood. He also used a casino in northern Jersey City formerly run by Pegorino Capo Earl Doherty as a base for his gambling ring. Don Vito Corleone begged The Commission to stop De Leonardis from "taking over" his territory, although De Leonardis had only limited backing from the Chicago Outfit. When the Olive Oil War broke out in 1933, De Leonardis moved to the Mariposa crime family for support in taking over Corleone casino interests, so Corleone had a sit-down with boss Frank Nitti, who reluctantly allowed him to take De Leonardis out. Death De Leonardis was hanging out at The Squid Club in Brooklyn on Wargrave Avenue of Rotterdam Hill, where he participated in a game with his wife Lauren Monahan, as well as felow gamblers Lucille Stillman, Walter Hall, James Delancey, Patrick O'Dealy, Nathan Tagliacuzzo, Charles Tattaglia, Warren Cozzulo, Ed Ciavarro, James DeNavarro, John Masonetto, Maria Bernadetta, John Mason, and Alec Hilde. He was playing a craps game at the club, and was winning when security guard Jason Wheeler approached him and told him that there was a disturbance on the ground floor, two floors below. Luca Brasi shot his way through the buttonmen and game workers, until he reached the top floor. He fired off several shots at De Leonardis, hitting him four times. He was hit in the shoulder, once in the wrist, and twice in the hip, and fell to the floor, dying of blood loss an hour later. Nathan Tagliacuzzo was killed in the incident with a single shot to the head. Category:Italians Category:Mobsters Category:Killed Category:Chicago Outfit Category:Loan Sharks